Toby Williams

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Tuesday 1st August 2023

One random comedian, eight random questions; it's the ultimate test of funny person and fate. This week we welcome a man you may know best for his medical work.

Yes he's appeared in huge hits like Sex Education, Paddington and Breeders, but we bet he's hassled most for playing that Specsavers vet ("Karen! I've got a cat with no pulse here!"). On stage, meanwhile, he's long established as the reprehensible Dr George Ryegold - but now Toby is playing... Toby, in a work-in-progress show currently called Gubbins. It's at London's Museum of Comedy on August 6 and 26, as part of the Camden Fringe.

"Gubbins is a more personal show and a culmination of the new material I've been working up over the past few years," says Williams. "It's been seven years since I put Dr George Ryegold to bed - not that he went peacefully - and it was hard to find my style all over again. In the end it has settled not too far from what it was, whilst still being distinctly different.

"I mean, Ryegold was basically me if I'd made it into medical school (the world really missed out there) and right from the start I was stealing personal stories and events and making them his. I personally don't think it's quite as dark or close to the knuckle as Ryegold, but folks who've seen some of the new material have begged to differ."

So how has Williams found that transition? Is it more nerve wracking than having the character to hide behind?

"Many comedians I've talked to think that being a character on stage is easier than being yourself," he says. "That might be true in some cases, but certainly not in mine - especially as I never actually wanted an audience to realise I was performing as a character.

"Ryegold trod a dangerous, dark line. He was challenging, almost to the point of confrontational, and as such he had to win. That made it impossible to fail, a very difficult position to be in on stage - especially at club gigs."

Williams decided to "soften his edges, make him a more tragic, bitter character to lower his status and allow the audience in more. I think I'd already achieved that by my 2010 show where Ryegold said terrible things, whilst obviously in a fragile mental state suffering at the hands of noisy neighbours and still fixating on childhood injustices - as I myself always am.

"So I guess the short answer is no! It's certainly not more nerve-wracking - slightly less if anything but I still get incredibly nervous before I get on stage, even for just five minutes of new material. But it's a lot easier than it used to be, when I'd feel sick just seeing a future club gig squatting there in my calendar, smirking at me."

Time to raid the old medicine bag. Toby Williams, your Random 8 await.

What was your favourite TV show, growing up?

So, so many. I grew up on TV - although I did also take Why Don't You's advice and go out and do something less boring instead. Their words, not mine.

From as early as I can remember I found TV magical and exciting, from The Clangers to The Flumps - shows that, in retrospect, seem completely out there but were mesmerising yet easily accessible to the young me. This progressed to a love of shows like Jamie And His Magic Torch's beautifully animated escapism, and all the Cosgrove Hall classics - Cockleshell Bay, Danger Mouse, The Wind In The Willows, Alias The Jester.

I believe the love of these shows first stoked my interest in performing as, at an early age, I was already interested in who was telling the story and voicing these characters (mostly the supremely talented Brian Trueman).

Who's the most interesting person you've ever met?

My great uncle Les fought in the Italian Campaign towards the end of the Second World War - a brutal, punishing campaign overshadowed by the Normandy landings.

Whilst crawling through mud in an effort to approach an occupied farmhouse, Les was shot in the thigh, the shoulder blade and then the head. Left for dead by his unit he eventually recovered consciousness and crawled back to their position where they were understandably quite surprised to see him.

The potentially fatal bullet had lodged in the webbing of his helmet. I think he was a little miffed that they'd left him but I did point out, 'To be fair Les, you had been shot in the head'. The forces that fought that campaign were unjustly branded the D-Day dodgers, after an ignorant and unnecessarily cruel remark made by the Conservative MP Nancy Astor. Great uncle Les never fully got over the hurt, upset and anger that this caused him.

What's your favourite phrase or expression?

Me and my wife celebrate every popped cork with Marsha from Spaced's iconic, 'Waaaaaaaay'.

The best or worst smell you've ever experienced?

Do yourself a favour and next time you're in the supermarket have a surreptitious sniff of some Cornish Smoked Salt. If you've ever been camping at any time in your life you'll be right back next to the campfire.

Who are you most envious of?

Envious is completely the wrong word, but I would have to say Simon Pegg. Spaced is an amazing show that I still rewatch and The Cornetto Trio are great films. And then he was in bloody Star Trek and now he's in bloody Mission Impossible for chrissakes! An enviable body of work. He has the talent, he's put the work in and he's earnt all of it. (But I want it.)

Your most interesting injury?

I have a small scar on my wrist from when I was about six. I fell over whilst playing in one of our favourite hidden places known locally as The Bottle Dump - which was exactly what it sounds like, so I guess it's a miracle none of us died.

The scar is now a good centimetre from the blood vessels in my wrist, but when I was six it was a lot closer. I've no idea how all the bottles got there, next to the train tracks in the middle of the woods, but people had obviously been dumping almost exclusively glassware there for many years.

I once found one of those old lemon-shaped bottles (so the contents wouldn't settle too much) that closed itself with a glass marble. I also found the page from a porn mag there once too, but we were there for the bottles and trains.

Which book should we all read, to make life a bit better?

A beautiful, insightful and very funny book by my friend Evie King called Ashes To Admin about her experiences as a tirelessly dedicated council funeral officer bringing dignity to those who pass on with either nobody, or nobody financially able, to arrange a fitting goodbye.

What's the best thing you've ever bought a ticket for?

There was a show that my friends Paul F Taylor and Rebecca Shorrocks [who played Karen in the aforementioned ad - ed] performed as their sketch duo Short & Curly. It was at The Museum of Comedy a few years ago and I don't think I stopped laughing for a second. I also grinned from ear to ear (and air-drummed, I'm not ashamed to say) to Black Sabbath at the O2.

One purchase that still rankles was at the fairground that would visit Basingstoke. I must have been about seven or eight and an attraction branding itself as something like, 'Come and see the terrifying monster awaken!' lured me in. Turned out it was just a shonky tableau of a man in a rubber mask sat in a chair with a couple of blokes dressed as doctors next to him.

You were supposed to just walk straight through but I stood and stared at it because I couldn't believe how crap it was. Finally the 'monster' moved and growled which made me jump so I left. Still shit though. And I still want my 10p back.